UC Berkeley’s new Chancellor, Nicholas Dirks, on coming to Cal

The second floor of California Hall is bright and airy, with a hushed air of importance. As Berkeleyside ascended the staircase last week, Dan Mogulof, UC Berkeley’s head of communications, alerted us to prepare for a shock: The new chancellor was wearing jeans.

When Nicholas Dirks greeted us, he was indeed in jeans, with a pressed pale pink shirt. (He made an unnecessary excuse for the jeans: “It’s the middle of August.”) The bookcases in the office were filled with scholarly texts, as well as popular fiction and nonfiction. For a man who oversees the well-being of 36,000 students, more than 1,500 faculty members, 8,477 staff, 130 academic departments, and a $2.2 billion budget, Dirks’ desk was remarkably clutter-free. A large Apple display was crowded with email messages.

Dirks, 62, former executive vice president and dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at Columbia University, took office June 1, but spent six weeks flying back and forth between New York City and the Bay Area. He moved into the chancellor’s home on campus in mid-July with his wife, Janaki Bakhle, an associate professor of history, and their 14-year-old son, who will be off to boarding school at the end of August (Dirks’ daughter from his first marriage works as a reporter at KPBS public radio in San Diego).